Does anyone know how to spot a fake micro SD card? My wife bought two SanDisk micro SD cards whilst in the Philippines. One of these failed completely and cannot be recovered. SanDisk has advised me that the cards in question are fake. What should I be looking for to avoid this happening again? :
buy the card only from authorized resellers.
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Yep. That’s what SanDisk told me too; but that is not very helpful. These cards were bought in the Philippines in a shopping mall from a shop selling cameras, mobile phones and accessories - the same type of shop you would perhaps buy from in the UK. The assumption is, that as it sells a range of photographic goods and their memory cards that they are an authorised dealer.
Many of the Flashcards and SC cards purchased on eBay or bought in vendor stands thorughout Asia are fake. They buy small memory cards like 1GB, then program the architecture to make them seem like 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32GB. You usually discover something wrong when files begin dissappearing after you exceed a limited size or the file names are retained, but the files won’t open (because they only contain such info as filename).
Flash drives and SD cards in all forms can be tested with a utility software program called H2testw.exe , http://www.heise.de/software/download/h2testw/50539 . It gets rave reviews by PC Magazine. I purchased 3 supposedly 16GB micro SDHC cards on eBay that were fake from Chinese vendors. When I tested them and filed for buyer protection with eBay, the money was refunded quickly.
Here is the post-test report on one of the fake 16GB cards.
The media is likely to be defective.
484.3 MByte OK (991976 sectors)
15.1 GByte DATA LOST (31743256 sectors)
Details:0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
15.1 GByte corrupted (31743256 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x000000001e45d000
Expected: 0x000000001e45d000
Found: 0x0000000000000000
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 9.49 MByte/s
Reading speed: 10.2 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
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Thanks. That is a very good explanation. My wife bought two micro SD cards whilst in the Philippines, strangely, one of them (so far) works perfectly! The one that failed could initially be read by the camera, as the images were visible on the LCD; however, when she next switched on she got the message clean card or format. The card was sent of for recovery, but turned out to be unreadable; they tell me that the controller on the card has failed - their program (and the one on my computer) reports 250 Mb of data which cannot be accessed. This last would be consistent with the images my wife said she had previously viewed on the card prior to failure.
I’ve got to accept that the images may never be recoverable and that the card they’re on is fake. What I’d really like to know is how to spot a fake! :cry:
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Follow drlucky’s advice. Buy from well known legitimate vendors or a source that has some type of buyer protection.
I recently bought a 32GB micro SDcard from a company in the UK trading as >mirosdcardsonline.co.uk< . The card was a fake with maximum storage of 2GB! I downloaded a test program, “h2testw_1.4”, which works fine with windows 7 and confirmed that the card was faulty and confirmed the maximum storage capacity of 2 GB (i.e… Not 32 GB as marked on the card!).
This test program will identify the problem and give you the necessary proof to demand a refund based on the fact that the seller is selling counterfeit cards.
The company I dealt with, Micro SD Cards UK Ltd of Luton, UK, trading as >microsdcardsonline.co.uk< did not reply except to ask me to return the “evidence” and then they would not reply when I asked for my refund. I had to obtain a charge-back via my credit card company which took two months but eventually I got my money back. Always pay by credit card and you are then protected against this type of fraud if the supplier does not refund you after a reasonable period.
In addition to advising not to deal with this company under any circumstances (it is run by a Mr. Hamilton and a Ms Griffith who never answer a phone call or respond to emails!), I would urge all readers to buy micro SDcards from a legitimate retailer or from a bona-fide online trader like Amazon. I subsequently purchased a genuine SanDisk 32 GB card from Amazon which is all that it should be - a first class product.
Please also be warned that microsdcardsonline.co.uk also sell branded SanDisk cards (the one I purchased was unbranded) but I would guess that these would also be counterfeit, but at a higher price, so I would advise that you shouldn’t take the chance!
This is scary, although this is not anything new about fake memory cards.
I’m buying on E-Bay 2 Micro SDHC 64Gb, seller posted pics of items into theyr original packaging. The packaging seems original,but…I see that, on seller pics, Micro SD are all black, but if i try to search this product on the Sandisk site i can’t found SDHC 64Gb (Sandisk show max memory is 32Gb for SDHC type) but only SDXC 64Gb. The packaging seem really original, now i wonder: Did ever Sandisk produce Micro SDHC 64Gb?
Hi Fab1972,
Dear member of SanDisk Community, welcome.
Well, friend, as you suspect (it’s also very cheap?), is fake.
International Protocol of the SD Association , it’s for all brands, and 64 GB, is SDXC only.
For more detail on this topic, you can check here: https://www.sdcard.org/home/
I guess that it’s a microSDHC 4GB, to which they added 6, or something similar.
If you bought it, then can make the following tests and verify:
1- Format with (free): USB Flash SD Formatter 4.00, http://filecloud.io/jqtu1byc
Also you can try, with three portable utilities (free), whether they are fakes:
2- USB Flash H2testw 1.40, http://filecloud.io/jl4fhn9b -It’s the classic utility, but for 64 Gb, it takes ~ 4 hours.
3- USB Flash FakeTest 1.09, http://filecloud.io/jl4fhn9b -It’s similar, but has a quick option, and takes minutes.
4- USB Flash ChipGenius 4.00, http://filecloud.io/rqa7etmv -All internal data, of your UFD.
Luck, and then you tell us, what happened, please.
Regards, Alfred. (Google translated)
Hi Fab1972,
Dear member of SanDisk Community, welcome.
Well, friend, as you suspect (it’s also very cheap?), is fake.
International Protocol of the SD Association, it’s for all brands, and 64 GB, is SDXC only.
For more detail on this topic, you can check here: https://www.sdcard.org/home/
I guess that it’s a microSDHC 4GB, to which they added 6, or something similar.
If you bought it, then can make the following tests and verify:
1- Format with (free): USB Flash SD Formatter 4.00, http://filecloud.io/jqtu1byc
Also you can try, with three portable utilities (free), whether they are fakes:
2- USB Flash H2testw 1.40, http://filecloud.io/jl4fhn9b -It’s the classic utility, but for 64 Gb, it takes ~ 4 hours.
3- USB Flash FakeTest 1.09, http://filecloud.io/jl4fhn9b -It’s similar, but has a quick option, and takes minutes.
4- USB Flash ChipGenius 4.00, http://filecloud.io/rqa7etmv -All internal data, of your UFD.
Luck, and then you tell us, what happened, please.
Regards, Alfred. (Google translated)
Hi Fab1972,
Dear member of SanDisk Community, welcome.
Well, friend, as you suspect (it’s also very cheap?), is fake.
International Protocol of the SD Association , it’s for all brands, and 64 GB, is SDXC only.
For more detail on this topic, you can check here: https://www.sdcard.org/home/
I guess that it’s a microSDHC 4GB, to which they added 6, or something similar.
If you bought it, then can make the following tests and verify:
1- Format with (free): USB Flash SD Formatter 4.00, http://filecloud.io/jqtu1byc
Also you can try, with three portable utilities (free), whether they are fakes:
2- USB Flash H2testw 1.40, http://filecloud.io/jl4fhn9b -It’s the classic utility, but for 64 Gb, it takes ~ 4 hours.
3- USB Flash FakeTest 1.09, http://filecloud.io/n074g3x5 -It’s similar, but has a quick option, and takes minutes.
4- USB Flash ChipGenius 4.00, http://filecloud.io/rqa7etmv -All internal data, of your UFD.
Luck, and then you tell us, what happened, please.
Regards, Alfred. (Google translated)
The Market is flooded with fake microSD cards, especially on Ebay, these card mount OK, report correct capacity written on the package, and never report an error when capacity of the original card before modification has passed, These cards even format OK to the fake capacity. Here is an example, a card physically is 4GB but its label and FAT file has changed to say 64GB. You never know it is fake except to find out after 4GB in this case is reached and files start not to exit even when the FAT file tells you your file is in the memory. H2testw software is very slow, but you can test your card by writing a lot of large files like videos to the card and find out is it really is what claims to be. Also note older devices don’t read exfat formated cards, so read the specs of your device may be SD card is not the problem. Buy SD cards from large chains or authorized dealers, consider the rest fake. Use your PC to Test the card immediately after purchase because you might pass the window to return it.
I bought a fake Sandisk 64GB from Ebay, it was only 4B, he seller returned my money immediately and did not even asked to send card back. I read we can report incidents like these Sandisk to start an investion, but I don’t know Sandisk cares or not, please let me know thanks…
I put this post up originally (ages ago) because my wife had problems with two cards that she’ d purchased in the Philippines; they were not bought on eBay, but through a retailer. These cards subsequently proved to be fake. We were unable to retrieve any of the images on these 2 Gb cards even after sending them to SanDisk themselves, who offer a recovery service.
As stated above. The cards read correctly as the stated size, could be mounted and formatted. However, once they had reached capacity they would no longer function; the images could not be read at all. Effectively the cards become unmounable.
I think I am late to the party, did some reseacch on the net to find out this been going on for a long time. These fake cards drive you crazy because they don’t give you a clue what is happening. I also found out Ebay does not really care what these scammers are doing, and challenging these seller is a big hassle that does not go anywhere, the best we can do make this problem as public as we can. I bought Samsung Evo class 10 card from Walmart so far it functioning perfectly and super fast.
I’d recommend 7DayShop.com. They are safe and very reliable. I’ve been using them since the film days.
I did checked 7dayshop.com, holly sh*t, they are Brits, unreal prices $98 for 64GB class 3 , here a class 10, 64GB sells for $60 form the best retailer in US, where this is only place professionals trust, no I don’t work for them:smileyvery-happy: I think the VAT tax really works over there,
Here is one more free utility that you can quickly use to confirm your microSD card authenticity, using your Android device.
SD Insight on the Google Play store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.humanlogic.sdi&hl=en
Hi Andromeda,
This is very genuine way I found to detect fake sd cards using
Fake Flash Test is another great tool to identify fake sd cards and flash memory devices.Here we have listed almost all procedure to find and provide information about how to find Fake memory cards from online retailer.
There is also an android app available on Google Play store that helps you to detect fake sd cards directly from your android device.This is very good micro sd card test software available on Google Play store for FREE.This Android app will write a test file and read it back testing it’s content to spot fake external memory of your device. It will test the speed and the storage capacity. Useful to check for a damaged or fake card.Check SD Card Tester Android App from Google Play Store.
Source : How to Verify Fake Micro SD Card
